While working in the emergency room, James Leininger founded Kinetic Concepts Inc. in 1976. Kinetic Concepts offers a range of advanced wound care products, including a negative pressure technology and the Graftjacket Regenerative Tissue Matrix. Kinetic Concepts was acquired in 2011 by Apax Partners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board in a transaction worth $6.1 billion. In September 2014, Kinetic Concepts was combined with LifeCell Corp. and Systagenix Wound Management Ltd. to form Acelity.

Leininger earned his medical degree from the Indiana University Medical School. He served in the Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War, then became a family practice physician before working in emergency medicine and becoming director of hospital emergency departments in San Antonio, TX.

According to Leininger’s personal Web site, he has been involved with over 100 corporations as an owner, founder, or investor. He was one of the founders of the Renal Care Group, a network of outpatient dialaysis centers that was acquired by Fresenius in 2005 for $3.4 billion.

Leininger is a major school choice advocate—he and his wife, Cecelia, have donated more than $100 million to the cause. He is also a minority owner of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team.